Less than 24 hours after announcing its plan to debut the first teaser trailer for “The Avengers: Age of Ultron” during an episode of “Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.” next week, Marvel has been forced to release the hyped clip online six nights early. It was either that or let a low-quality, grainy trailer steal all of the studio’s thunder (the initially leaked version has since been taken down).

While the visuals in the trailer are nothing to sniff at, it’s what’s heard and not seen that makes the clip such a chilling tease. Read More »

Last night, Marvel Studios announced on Twitter that the first trailer for “The Avengers: Age of Ultron” will premiere next Tuesday, Oct. 28, during “Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.” – appropriate, considering the ABC series is also a Marvel property. Other than the basic info – the episode will air at 9pm/8pm Central – no other details of the long-awaited glimpse of the highly anticipated next “Avengers” installment were forthcoming.

Will we see all, some or just a couple of larger-than-life superheroes like Iron Man (Robert Downey Jr.), the Hulk (Mark Ruffalo), Thor (Chris Hemsworth) or Captain America (Chris Evans)? Will the trailer feature Avengers adversary/robot villain Ultron (James Spader)? Will they be eating shawarma? Read More »

Marvel premiered the first footage of its next TV show, “Agent Carter,” late Friday at New York Comic Con. The show, a spinoff from “Marvel’s Agents of SHIELD,” features Hayley Atwell reprising her role from the Captain America movies as Agent Peggy Carter, working for SHIELD’s predecessor in the days after World War II.

The scene was shot just four days previously, according to Jeph Loeb, Marvel’s head of television, and was (purportedly, at least) delivered to New York on a DVD by Clark Gregg, the star of “Agents of SHIELD,” and shown to an eager crowd. Read More »

Lucy Lawless, the former star of “Xena: Warrior Princess,” will join “Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.,” a spokeswoman for ABC confirmed.

There was no additional word from the network regarding what character Lawless is expected to play or how long the actress will stick around on the superheroes series. Representatives for Lawless did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

In addition to playing a butt-kicking warrior princess, Lawless has starred in “Spartacus,” “Parks and Recreation,” and “Battlestar Galactica.” Read More »

MIKE: We’ve made it, Marshall. The first season of “Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. — yes, first, since it’s coming back next year — is coming to a close, and I’m pretty pumped to see what’s going to happen. Sure, we’ll probably get a big, fat cliffhanger that’ll lead into “Guardians of the Galaxy,” but so what? This show has turned around since “Captain America: The Winter Soldier” came out, and it’s finally hit its stride as it comes in for the landing.

MARSHALL: Agreed. It’s ironic that it took the destruction of S.H.I.E.L.D. for “Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.” to find its voice. Anyway, this episode opens in a slick-office where a Silicon Valley-type gives a tour to a new hire. The new hire is there for a mysterious “Incentives Program.” The gig? Man the system behind each Cybertek super-soldier. However, he’s there just in time for the live-stream of Coulson and team literally brining the house down on a would-be assassination squad. Read More »

MIKE: Here we are, the penultimate episode of what’s felt like a very long season at times. At least the show seems to be barreling toward an exciting conclusion as Agent Coulson and his team try to get to the bottom of what the traitorous HYDRA agents Garrett and Ward are up to.

This week’s episode opens with a flashback: A young Ward in a juvenile detention center being wooed into service by Garrett, who sees something he likes in the troubled kid. The kid’s reluctance can’t withstand Garrett’s pressure or charms, so he joins. Years later, in present day, Garrett gloats as his plan begins to come together, between nearly finalizing a compound based on the “cure” give to Coulson and Skye, as well as assassinations conducted by Deathlok. In yet another flashback, we see how Garrett shaped Ward with cruel training more fitting to the Spartans of Frank Miller’s “300,” leaving the young recruit to fend for himself in the wilderness for a while at one point. Read More »

MARSHALL: Good evening Mike! After all the fun “Star Wars” news today – you know, the OTHER Disney super- franchise – all this seems like a bit of an afterthought, eh? Well, anyway, one week after one of the stronger “Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.” episodes we’re dropped back into the fog of an intelligence war, as Melinda May confronts Agent Maria Hill – currently an employee of Tony Stark, and fresh from a session of congressional inquiry (“What is a Man-Thing?) – and quizzes her about Fury, Tahiti and Alexander Pierce. Hill insists that Fury is dead, but May doesn’t buy it.

Back in the bunker, Coulson and gang are perplexed by May’s abandonment, Ward and Skye’s absconding with the Bus, and the absence of one Agent Koenig. Fitz eventually finds a message, presumably left by Skye, fingering Ward for a Hydra agent. Cue Simmons’s scream upon discovering the sad corpse of Patton Oswalt. Read More »

MARSHALL: Well, Mike, if either of us were wondering how the remainder of Season One of “Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D ” would play out, we may have an answer already. It looks like Marvel has borrowed a plot point from the D.C. Comics “Knightfall” saga: Garret and and Ward blasted a hole into the side of the Fridge, unleashing a small army of super-powered psychopaths into the wild.

Now, Coulson and his team have to track them down, one-by-one, with their resources severely depleted. And it looks like they’ll start with Marcus Daniels – a mystery man from last week – who is better known as Blackout. In this iteration he can suck the energy (or life-force?) out of anything around him. Read More »

MARSHALL: Greetings Mr Calia and welcome back! And greetings to you, the dedicated viewers who hung in through 2/3 of a season’s worth of narrative water treading. But now, after the release of “Captain America: The Winter Soldier” and the dissolution of S.H.I.E.L.D., we have the possibility for a more dynamic show. Our hero Agent Ward is, actually, an embedded Hydra agent. Mike, what do you think of the new direction?

MIKE: Hail Hydra! If that doesn’t sum up my feelings, I don’t know what to tell you. Hydra’s infiltration is the best thing to happen to this show, and it’s an exciting turn of events in the broader Marvel cinematic universe. Props to the Whedons and Kevin Feige.

But, hey, there’s still plenty of story to tell, and without being moored so directly to “Captain America” anymore, can S.H.I.E.L.D. keep up the momentum? Read More »

The much-hyped Deathlok showed up on “Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.” this week, and it comes at a crucial time in the show’s timeline — just as it’s about to tie into “Captain America: The Winter Soldier,” which opens Friday in the U.S.

Agents Garrett and Triplett (Bill Paxton and B.J. Britt, respectively) are in hot pursuit of The Clairvoyant, but Deathlok, a scarred and weaponized “super soldier” of sorts also known as Mike Peterson (J. August Richards), is doing the psychic baddie’s evil bidding, running interference for him. So, the agency is on high alert, and Coulson’s team — aided by a rejuvenated and fully healed Skye, now an official agent — as they get closer to determining the Clairvoyant’s true identity. Surely, the Clairvoyant will see them coming, no? Not if S.H.I.E.L.D. sends out a few two-member teams that don’t know what the others are doing. Read More »

About Speakeasy

Speakeasy is a blog covering media, entertainment, celebrity and the arts. The publication is produced by Barbara Chai and Jonathan Welsh with contributions from the Wall Street Journal staff and others. Write to us at speakeasy@wsj.com or follow us on Twitter at @WSJSpeakeasy or individually @barbarachai.